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Thursday, 31 July 2014

As regulars to my blog will know,
I’m a big fan of strong female characters and have recently found myself more
and more drawn to fictional depictions of historical women.Nicola Griffith’s Hildis one such novel.Set
in the Dark Ages, it tells the story of the girl who would later become St
Hilda of Whitby.It’s an utterly mesmerizing
narrative, and Nicola talks here about how she crafted what would become Hild’s
voice:

I was in my 20s when I first saw
Whitby Abbey and heard about the extraordinary woman who had founded it. But I
wasn't a writer then. I tucked her story in the back of my mind and went on to
other things.

Fast forward 20 years. I was
waiting for the proofs of Always,
the third Aud novel. My mother was dying. I was going crazy. So I did what I’ve
always done when I can’t sit still: I just started to write. In a blaze of
energy I wrote a memoir. I wrote the whole thing, soup to nuts, in three
months; there was no time to be precious or step around the truth. As I wrote
the introduction, I found myself talking about history and language and landscape
and how I was shaped as a writer by all three. It became clear that this story
about an extraordinary woman called Hild was where I’d been going for years,
where I’d always been going, I’d just been too afraid of failure—failing at
this thing I’d been aiming for all my life—to admit it. So the day before my
birthday I thought: Enough. I would celebrate by having begun. So I sat down,
opened a new document. And there she was, lying under a tree, listening. She
was three years old…

I’d never written from the point
of view of a child before. I’d never written a novel set in the past. It was
daunting.

I wanted Hild and all the other
women to do their extraordinary and interesting things securely within the
constraints of their time—while being fully, recognizably human (not idiotic
stereotypes of Women In Ye Olde Past; you know the kind of thing). Hild had to
be believable as a woman in her time and place, yet singular. Because she must
have been. She began as the second daughter of a woman widowed in exile, hunted
by rival petty kings, and ended as the most powerful abbess of Britain,
counsellor to kings and teacher of five bishops. Now beloved as a saint.

But saints are never saintly in
real life. They’re complicated, sometimes difficult, human beings. I wanted to
know what made Hild who she is, how she managed to remain within her cultural
constraints and become universally revered.

So I researched, and I pondered,
and, frankly, quailed. And as I indulged in all kinds of avoidance
behaviour—including more research—I stumbled over a new factoid: one scholar
estimated that Anglo-Saxon women spent 65% of their time in the production of
textiles.

This stopped me in my tracks.
Sixty-five percent. That’s a greater proportion of her day than sleeping, child
care, and food preparation combined. As I thought about it I understood that
textile production was life-or-death technology for the whole community. I kept
returning to it. It fascinated me. But I didn’t want to write that kind of
book. I didn’t want to write about the restrictions of gender. Domesticity
makes me claustrophobic. Hearth and home are all very well, but I love an epic
canvas: gold and glory, politics and plotting.

To avoid that, I was tempted to
take the easy way out and make Hild so singular that the restrictions didn’t
apply to her. I tried everything I could think of; at one point I even had her
learn and use a sword, although in reality she might have very well have been
put to death for that.

It didn’t work: History is made
by real people; the rules always apply. I despaired of being able to reconcile
that reality with what I wanted, what somewhere inside I knew was possible.

In the end I did what any good
Anglo-Saxon would: I got drunk, laughed in the face of fear, and charged. And I
discovered what poets have known for millennia; that constraint is freeing. I
had nothing to lose, so I committed. The words came. It felt like magic. It was
Hild’s voice.

Nicola Griffith has
won a Nebula Award, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, the World Fantasy Award and
six Lambda Literary Awards. A native of Yorkshire - now a dual US/UK citizen -
Nicola is a onetime self-defence instructor who turned to writing full-time
upon being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1993. She lives with her wife
in Seattle.

Friday, 25 July 2014

The lovely Annie Lyons is the first ever Carina author to be published in paperback!! I caught up with her to chat about Not Quite Perfect...

1) Firstly, congratulations for being the first
Carina author to make the transition for ebook to print; what was your reaction
when you found out?

Thank you very much and also for hosting me today. I had known for a while that it was a possibility so it
wasn’t a shock but it was fantastic when I finally got the news.

To be honest, it didn’t sink in properly until I walked
into Asda and saw it on the shelf nestled between Bridget Jones and Stephen
King. Now THAT was a special moment…

2) In Not Quite Perfect, both Emma and Rachel face struggles in
their relationships. What do you think brings a relationship to life in a
novel, and is there key to making it realistic?

I think dialogue is key for me. I spend quite a long time
thinking about situations and what the person would actually say to make it as
realistic as possible. I am also extraordinarily nosy and my husband gets a bit
cross with me when we’re out in public because I am invariably listening to
someone else’s conversation instead of him!

3) In some ways, the two sisters represent two
different routes in life, but each ends up making similar decisions at key
moments. What do you think this says about people in general?

Emma and Rachel have very different lives but the same
background and the relationship with their parents is key to the choices they
make. I think this is true for lots of people. You think you’re not influenced
by your past and your family experience but it’s there, underpinning everything
you do.

4) At the opening of the novel, the sisters' mother
Diana seems quite unsympathetic, but as the narrative unfolds, little by little
we begin to understand her. When writing, did you find that characters
surprised you, as Diana does the readers?

Absolutely. My characters always surprise me and lead me
by the hand through the story. I try to make people as rounded and realistic as
possible. Human beings aren’t either heroes or villains – there’s more than one
side to everybody. Everyone has their struggles too and I like to explore them
if I can.

5) One of the things that makes Not Quite
Perfect unique, is the use of the present tense throughout the entire
novel. Was this a conscious decision and what impact do you think it has?

I have to come clean and say that it wasn’t a conscious
decision. It was the first book I’d ever written and it just flowed in that way
but it works for me. I hadn’t really considered what impact this has but
looking at it now, it probably brings more of an immediacy to the story which
flits quite quickly between the sisters and takes place over a relatively short
period of time.I think a few people
have found it unusual but most don’t seem to mind and some love it!

6) And finally, can you tell us about any other projects that you're
currently working on?

I have been doing lots of fab interviews and writing blog
articles for this fantastic tour to talk about Not Quite Perfect and my new book, Dear Lizzie. It’s been a blast – bloggers are an amazing,
dedicated bunch – I salute you all!

I also have a new character nagging at my brain and an empty
notebook to fill over the summer holidays in preparation for starting my new
book in September. I’m quite excited about this one…

Does that sound suitably mysterious? I would tell you more
if I could!

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About Me

Ali Williams grew up in Croydon and spent her teenage years in a convent
girls' school. She then fled to university where she discovered
champagne cocktails, a capella singing and erotica.

These days she blogs
about perceptions of romance, chick lit and women in society and spends
an extraordinary amount of time coercing male friends to pose with her
favourite Mills & Boon books to the bemusement of the Twittersphere.